Meet Lydia Burns

Women of Kendall College’s TASTE Talks Series

To celebrate Women’s History Month, we are introducing you to some of the women that help to create and grow our Kendall College TASTE Talk series. These women continue to share their personal stories and profound knowledge with us, and we look forward to each educational and engaging episode they produce. Today, meet Lydia Burns – adjunct instructor at Kendall College and cheese extraordinaire.

Lydia Burns is a longtime professional cheese eater and exuberant enthusiast of all things tasty. She currently operates Savvy Squirrel Consulting, designing and teaching both accredited and casual consumer cheese and specialty foods classes as well as leading industry product training & tastings for Rogers Collection (a boutique traditional foods importer). Over the past 14 years, Lydia has acted as buyer, product curator, and procurement specialist for some of the best independent shops and retailers across Chicago, forging relationships that have allowed her to travel the globe and witness cheesemaking, winemaking and the production of a range of other traditional foods. These travels have forged memories and stories she would love to share with whoever might be interested. Lydia believes that food is not only sustenance but also a reflection of deep-seeded cultural values and encapsulates a particular place and point of view.  Coming together to taste and learn about these traditions allows us a way of forging a new sense of community: whether in person or virtually, we can still gather together and break bread!  Among her most esteemed professional accomplishments Lydia’s dedication to the proliferation of cheese culture has been recognized by the Guilde Internationale des Fromagers induction as Garde et Jure. 

To learn more about Lydia Burns and to discover more about the knowledge and adventures, you can subscribe to Kendall College at NLU’s TASTE Talks on YouTube to watch all of our recorded episodes.

We also invite you to join us for our upcoming TASTE Talks! Please email taste@nl.edu for more information on the free TASTE Talk Series.